Age of Wonders 3 is a fantastic 4x Turn Based Strategy game with satisfying and challenging campaigns, genuinely interesting scenario maps, and an addictive random map generator that allows a great deal of customization. The game has many races and interesting classes that combine to unlock a variety of units, spells, and special abilities. Wizard customization allows players to customize magic and research specialization as well as create a variety of unique and interesting wizards. To be added at a later date is supposedly personality customization for Player Created Wizards and a mechanism by which to share them. Triumph has been great at interacting with the player community and taking feedback on ways to improve the game and have earned a lot of respect and good will for it.
Blood Omen had Kain wandering around dungeons and between towns with a Legend of Zelda/Isometric Metroidvania sort of gameplay, and by the end of it Kain was able to rain lightning down from the sky and do all sorts of cool stuff. But Blood Omen 2 is just a hack and slash on rails spectacle fighter, it has none of the freedom or exploration that was in the first Blood Omen and Kain is weak. This game doesn't even have the elements of exploration found in Soul Reaver, it's entirely on rails, and it sucks. For the love of god I don't understand how anyone could give it a good score, unless they just never played any other game in the series and found the idea of playing a vampire novel.
Empire Earth 3, While it was still playable and I appreciated the inclusion of a global campaign map, was a major step backwards from the series. The first is arguably the best in series, a game where you could play on a huge map (with downloadable maps that were even larger than the huge maps) from the stone age to a high tech futuristic empire, with each phase feeling fully fleshed out with a variety of units and advantages (granted the Stone Age wasn't very interesting). . A single game could literally last for hours in the original empire earth, and there were a lot of options both when creating a new game and how to proceed through a game. . Empire Earth III reduced this to extremely short battles with practically all the charm removed from it, the AI is shoddy the replay value is practically gone, there are only three civilizations you can choose from and while they're admittedly different you'll probably get bored with them rather quickly because the AI can't even tech up with the player.
I may have been turned off a bit because I played Bloodlines first, which I highly recommend over Redemption if you can find it (it doesn't appear to be on GoG), but Redemption is still a good game. You start in medieval times, becoming a vampire drawn into a conflict with the Sabbat, which carries you to various exotic locations. Without spoiling the story, you eventually end up in more modern times, a vampire out of place in a world of guns and electricity, and must finish your quest by defeating a demon. That summary doesn't do the game justice, it's got well written well spoken characters, and if you don't mind the lack of freedom that comes with Redemption, you'll probably appreciate the story. The graphics have aged well. Still, if you can find it, Bloodlines is highly recommended over this.
It's far from "Standard" Each faction was truly unique, it had a Mer Faction, a beastial faction with lots of flying units, a Human knightly faction, and an Undead Faction, each was very different and played in very unique ways. The Campaign is also decent, and the multiplayer was great, this was also one of the first RTS games to come with a map editor and maps could be downloaded in game. Unfortunately it hasn't aged well, it's not just graphically obsolete the interface is way obsolete and the resolution was made for an age when monitors were much smaller so you can't see much. Still this was a great game I wish there were an HD Remake.
